Lei Zhixiao, Feng Yifan, Zhang Wenming, Jiang Yujia, Chen Minjiao, Jiang Wankui, Xin Fengxue
State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Puzhu South Road 30#, Nanjing, 211800, P. R. China.
Shandong Yahua Biological Technology Co.,Ltd, Anqiu, Weifang, 262100, P.R. China.
World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2025 May 26;41(6):184. doi: 10.1007/s11274-025-04415-6.
Ergothioneine (Egt) is a rare sulfur-containing amino acid widely distributed in edible fungi and bacteria. As a natural antioxidant, Egt has demonstrated significant application potential in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. However, conventional Egt production predominantly relies on chemical synthesis and biological extraction methods, which suffer from low titers and cannot meet the escalating market demand. With advances in synthetic biology, genetic engineering of suitable microbial chassis strains coupled with fermentation process optimization has emerged as a research hotspot for enhancing Egt biosynthesis efficiency. This review systematically examines Egt's applications, metabolic pathways, microbial synthesis strategies, and fermentation optimization approaches, while also prospecting future research directions and technical challenges in Egt production.
麦角硫因（Egt）是一种稀有的含硫氨基酸，广泛分布于食用菌和细菌中。作为一种天然抗氧化剂，Egt在食品、制药和化妆品行业已展现出巨大的应用潜力。然而，传统的Egt生产主要依赖化学合成和生物提取方法，这些方法产量低，无法满足不断增长的市场需求。随着合成生物学的发展，对合适的微生物底盘菌株进行基因工程改造并优化发酵工艺，已成为提高Egt生物合成效率的研究热点。本文综述系统研究了Egt的应用、代谢途径、微生物合成策略和发酵优化方法，同时展望了Egt生产未来的研究方向和技术挑战。
